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Monday, February 25, 2013

"The minute our eyes met, I knew what to do: so I stopped in the middle of what I was doing, which was dusting off the glass shield over the ice cream buckets, and stacking up waffle cones here and sugar cones there. From the counter I grabbed a bunch of paper tissues, and bent all the way down, like, to pick something from the floor. Then with a swift, discrete shove, I stuffed the tissues into one side of my bra, then the other, ‘cause I truly believe in having them two scoops—if you know what I mean—roundly and firmly in place.

Having a small chest is no good: men seem to like girls with boobs that bulge out. It seems to make an awful lot of difference, especially at first sight, which you can always tell by them customers, drooling.

I straightened up real fast, and it didn’t take no time for him to come in. I was still serving another customer, some obnoxious woman with, like, three chins. She couldn’t make up her mind if she wanted hot fudge on top or just candy sprinkles, and what kind, what flavor would you say goes well with pistachio nut, and how about them slivered almonds, because they do seem to be such a healthy choice, now really, don’t they.

He came in and stood in line, real patient, right behind her. So now I noted his eyes, which was brown, and his high forehead and the crease, the faint crease right there, in the middle of it, which reminded me all of a sudden of my pa, who left us for good when I was only five, and I never saw him again—but still, from time to time, I think about him and I miss him so.

I could feel Lenny—whose name I didn’t know yet—like, staring at me. It made me hot all over. For a minute there, I could swear he was gonna to ask me how old I was—but he didn’t."

Anita in Apart from Love (depicted here in my quick paper collage.)Take a listen to her voice--just the last two sentences:

If your browser wouldn't play it, try this.My narrator for the voice of Anita is, in a word, wonderful. Heather Jane Hogan brings the words to life, and she does it in a natural way, without overstating them. You can read more about her in my introduction of her, The Woman Behind Anita's Voice.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Renee Pierce Williams is the author of the five-star rated, GCBA-nominated book, Buck the Good Doog. Born and raised in Georgia, she began her seventeen-year career at Aflac, where she held positions in both the Marketing and Legal Documentation divisions of the company. I simply love her ★★★★★ review of my novel, Apart From Love:

5.0 out of 5 starsLove, Lies and Betrayal... Anything "Apart From Love", February 22, 2013

"Apart From Love" is the debut novel by the multi-talented Uvi Poznansky, a writer, poet, painter, sculptor, architect, software engineer, and teacher.This book is a compelling story about an aging, aspiring writer named Lenny Kaminsky, his very talented ex-wife Natasha, who is in a nursing home with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, his new wife Anita, who is much younger than he and comes from the "school of hard knocks," and his estranged twenty-seven year old son, Ben.Poznansky gives just enough detail as to not overwrite her characters but paints a very vivid picture of each one in your imagination. She allows the pertinent characters to tell their own account of this modern-day love triangle which keeps the reader totally engaged."Apart from Love" is so well written and relevant to the world we live in today... I feel an adapted screenplay may be on the horizon for this debut novelist.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Christian Ashley is an author of Historical Romance, Paranormal Fiction, and Erotic Fantasy. You may have seen some of her books: Rose of Gwynedd, In Daddy's Arms, and Dignity. I appreciate a story for its contrasts, which explains precisely why I enjoy her mixed-genre work. I am thrilled that she posted a ★★★★★ review for my ebook, A Favorite Son. Here is what she wrote:

I love how the author, Uvi Poznansky, can convincingly tell a story from a first person perspective, literally fold time, and simultaneously convey the emotions of all of the other characters as well. The way that Jacob tells his story is captivating, and I read it through from the beginning to the end. Jacob is also quite humorous as he often pulled something in from the present day to bring forth a chuckle. The "Yankle in the Box" actually made me laugh aloud. Bravo, Uvi! A Favorite Son, like Apart from Love, is brilliant!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

So, here is the cover for the audio edition of Apart From Love! My purpose is to display the title, author, and narrator names in a way that complements the underlying image. So I had to adjust the brightness of the text, so that the name "Heather Jane Hogan" stands out, blue on blue, by the same degree as "David Kudler" stands out, red on red. It is all a question of balance... I chose the Golden color of the title so it stands out the most over the image. Under it, the author name is displayed in a peachy flesh color, same as the figure. I wanted to impart the feeling that light comes from above, and it is caught by the text, more so at the top--Apart From Love--and less and less as it trickles farther and farther down.

If you're wondering where the image came from, it is based on the rightmost panel in my 3-panel oil painting. I offer it to your interpretation, if the figures are dancing out of joy, or getting themselves tied in utter frustration... When I painted the picture, I likened the red fabric to chewing gum on the floor, into which you step and can never release yourself. The more you fight to free yourself, the more you become entangled.

Shimmering luster, let me try, let me reach you

Layers beyond layers of red, all aglow

With trembling fingers I touch... Flimsy tissue

It comes down upon me, folding high into low

I dance with abandon, with no inhibition,

Entangled in fabric, I can no longer flee

Can't breath, for now I can see the strange fusion

Now I know: this tissue is me

And here is the musical score for the audiobook: Stefano-Ligoratti playing Mozart's variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Natasha, the mother in Apart From Love is a pianist, and this music was chosen with her in mind:

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The cover of A Favorite Son, in both the ebook and audiobook editions, is based on my own mixed media painting. The main difference between the two is the proportions (square instead of rectangle.) In the original art I floated various paints on the paper, letting them drizzle and mix, to create an intricate, fiery flow of color. Then when they dried out I came in with a black pen, and drew just a few lines to suggest the figure.To me, this is what this image means: looking directly at yourself, facing the pain and the imperfections within, without any attempt to mask who you are—even if you find yourself on the verge of a meltdown. Which is the process the protagonist, Yankle, is going through in this story. He finds himself coming to terms with his core being, with how the tension between his emotions and needs has driven him over a lifetime. In a most profound sense, this is a story of crime and punishment.

As in my previous book cover designs for Apart From Love and Home, the title and the author name cast a shadow over the image. If you look closely, the shadow has soft, fuzzy borders. However, one detail is different here: two of the letters of the author name cast a shadow like all the other letters, but the two glyphs themselves—U and P--are intentionally missing. Why? For two reasons.

First, because often in my art I discover that the eye is drawn to the unexpected, and the brain rises to the challenge when there is a missing link to resolve. The observer, then, becomes engaged with the art, and in a sense, becomes its creator. And second, because this missing detail is a symbol, an indication of the flawed character in this story. As with the U and P, the narrator's name, David Kudler, appears in shadow form only. This extends the graphical concept of the missing glyphs. It is also symbolic, because the voice is a soul. It fills our mind and heart, it resonates without having a visual, physical existence.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Cameron Datzker, a veteran of sports talk radio for over 20 years, asked me to come on his show, Sports and Life on LA Talk Radio, for the third time! My segment starts after 15 first minutes. I had a special surprise--the original voice audition for Anita's role, for the audiobook production of my novel, Apart From Love! Come now, you know you must listen:

Friday, February 15, 2013

Today I would like to introduce the voice artist of The White Piano (volume II of the series) and of Apart from Love (volume I & II, interwoven.) Take a listen to his voice, and you too would feel like cuddling in bed with the book, or perhaps with Ben, the character he plays. Which is why I thought that his name must have been misspelled: David Kudler. He is lyrical, intelligent, literate, capable of multiple accents and ages for the characters. So in my novel, he becomes not only Ben (at the age of twenty-seven and at the age of twelve) but also his father Lenny, the bumbling lawyer, Mr. Bliss, and aunt Hadassa as well!

Here is a voice clip with the expression that inspired the title of Apart from Love:

David has been a voice and stage actor (AEA, SAG-AFTRA), a writer, and a book editor for over twenty years. Since 1999, he has been in charge of publications for the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Based on this experience, he added the titles of ebook designer and audio producer to his shingle. As a narrator, he has a warm, versatile voice, and a great ear for character and dialect. He loves bringing multiple characters to life at the same time. Here is what he says about himself:"Though I'd done plenty of voice-over work, it wasn't until I was creating an ebook of my own children's story The Seven Gods of Luck and was producing a read-aloud track that it occurred to me: I've got all of the skills and facilities to create professional, high-quality audiobooks."The first book he narrated for me was A Favorite Son. By the time he finished it I was so taken by his voice--correction, his voices--as to write this Ode to the great Kudler:

Uvi Poznansky is a bestseller, award-winning author, poet and artist. Her boxed set, A TOUCH OF PASSION, has just become the 2016 WINNER of The Romance Reviews Readers' Choice Awards.
“I paint with my pen,” she says, “and write with my paintbrush.” She received a Fellowship grant and a Teaching Assistantship from the Architecture department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she earned her M.A. in Architecture. Then, taking a sharp turn in her education, she earned her M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Uvi writes across a variety of genres: Apart From Love and The White Piano (literary fiction), My Own Voice (women's fiction), The Music of Us and Dancing with Air (romance), Rise to Power, A Peek at Bathsheba, and The Edge of Revolt (historical fiction), A Favorite Son (biblical fiction), Home (poetry), Twisted (horror), and Now I Am Paper and Jess and Wiggle (children’s books.)